In Israel, the reported prevalence of hepatitis-C virus (HCV) infection among blood donors is 0.44%. As we found a high prevalence of chronic hepatitis-B virus (HBV) and HCV infection in Jewish immigrants from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan (Bukharian Jews) among our general patient population, we determined the prevalence of HBV and HCV infection among « healthy » Bukharian Jewish immigrants by screening for HBV and HCV markers and risk factors in a population of Bukharian Jews in north Jerusalem.

A total of 27 (26.5%) of 102 patients were anti-HCV positive (by ELISA and confirmation tests).

The HCV positive patients were older and had a higher rate of liver enzyme abnormalities than were the HCV-negative patients (56.5 ± 2.3 versus 47.6 ± 1.8, p=0.003 ; and 14 of 27 versus 7 of 75, p<0.01, respectively).